Page:Gissing - The Emancipated, vol. I, 1890.djvu/120

112 belong to that category. On hearing her cousin's proposition, she at first smiled coldly; but she did not reject it, and in a day or two they had made a fair beginning of the 'Inferno.' Such a beginning, indeed, as surprised Eleanor, who was not ye made aware that Miriam worked at the book in private with feverish energy—drank at the fountain like one perishing of thirst. Andersen's exquisite story was not so readily accepted, yet this too before long showed a book-marker. And Miriam's countenance brightened; she could not conceal this effect. Her step was a Little lighter, and her speech became more natural.

A relapse was to be expected; it came at the bidding of scirocco. One morning the heavens lowered, grey, rolling; it might have been England. Vesuvius, heavily Laden at first with a cloud Like that on Olympus when the gods are wrathful, by degrees passed from vision, withdrew its form into recesses of dun mists. The angry